September 29 - October 5, 2025

The Week: Daily rehearsals, coachings, workshops, sight-reading parties, recitals, and discussions about music, arts, and culture. Additionally, the Kneisel Hall library offers a cornucopia of chamber music literature and recordings.

Sample Day:
7:30 – 8:30 Breakfast
9:00 – 12:00 Rehearsal and coaching
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 2:30 Assigned sight-reading
2:45 – 4:15 Freelance sight-reading
4:15 – 5:15 Free time
5:15 – 6:00 Socializing on campus
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner
7:30 Attend recital, discussion, workshop, or more playing

If you have questions regarding eligibility, audition requirement, or other program-related questions, please contact ACMI director Scott Woolweaver at swoolweaver@hotmail.com.

ACMI is open to adult amateur musicians who play violin, viola, cello, and/or piano.

Any musician who is interested in applying to attend ACMI in 2025 should fill out an application by clicking the “Apply” button on this page.

The deadline for application is August 1, 2025.

The tuition for the program is $1,950, which includes room and board from Sunday, September 28 - Sunday, October 5, 2025.

Scott Woolweaver – Scott Woolweaver, viola, graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan School of Music where he won the Joseph Knitzer and Earl V. Moore awards for outstanding participation in chamber music.  After moving to Boston for graduate studies with Walter Trampler, he founded the Boston Composers String Quartet, which won the silver medal at the String Quartet Competition and Chamber Music Festa in Osaka, Japan.  He was also a founding member of the Vaener String Trio, Grand Prize winners at the Joseph Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.  From 1999-2006 he was a member of the Ives Quartet, based in San Francisco, CA, and for over 25 years he was a member of the New England Piano Quartette. A champion of the music of our time, Scott has premiered many new works, including pieces written especially for him.  Since 1980 he has been a member of Alea III, a contemporary music ensemble in residence at Boston University. Scott made his debut as viola d’amor soloist with Boston Baroque on New Year’s Eve, 1999. He has been soloist or guest artist with numerous organizations across the United States, including the Boston Chamber Music Society, Bay Chamber Concerts, the Cape & Islands Festival, Chamber Artists of Washington DC, Collage New Music, the Bangor (ME) Symphony, Les Violons du Roy (Quebec), the Handel & Haydn Society, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. In 1985 he was a founding member of Chamber Music East (faculty, alumni and friends of the New England Conservatory) and the First Monday Series at Jordan Hall. Scott has recorded for Orion, Koch International, TelDec, Audiofon, Albany Records, Decca, and Northeastern Records Scott Woolweaver is Artist Affiliate in Viola and Chamber Music at Tufts University in Medford, MA, and is a faculty member at the All Newton Music School in West Newton, MA, where he is Director of the Con Brio Concert Series. He is a regular guest of the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society and is Director of the Adult Chamber Music Institute at Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill, ME. Scott plays a Johan Georg Thir viola made in Vienna, 1737. www.ScottWoolweaverViola.com

Georgy Valtchev - Georgy Valtchev has performed on some of the world’s most prestigious stages as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals, and as a chamber musician. A dedicated collaborative musician, Georgy enjoys frequent performances with distinguished international artists and ensembles in the United States and Europe. As principal member of the Mark Morris Dance Group musicians, he has toured around the world. Georgy has been honored to lead, as guest concertmaster, several major symphony orchestras, most notably the London Philharmonic and the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Madrid. He is a founder and artistic director of the ‘Unbeaten Path,’ chamber music festival in Kovachevitsa, Bulgaria, and founding member of the chamber music series ‘Bulgarian Concert Evenings in NY.’

Lora Tchekoratova - Lora Tchekoratova is a concert pianist, piano pedagogue, artistic director, and festival maker. She made her debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 1996 after winning the First Prize at the Washington International Competition for pianists, where she also received the Audience Prize and the Prize for the youngest finalist. Since then, she has made recital appearances throughout the United States, most notably at the Phillips Collection, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, The Museum of Modern Art, and Allice Tully Hall in New York, in Alexandria, Chicago, Miami, and Minneapolis, and in major venues in Europe, including in Rome, Monte Carlo, and Prague.
She has premiered and commissioned numerous contemporary works by American and Bulgarian composers throughout her career. She has appeared at many venues for new music, starting while a student at The Juilliard School, where she was featured as a solo artist at the Focus, Summergarden, and Piano Century festivals. Tchekoratova has also performed at the American Composers Festival in New York’s Symphony Space, the Keys to the Future festival for new and recent piano music at The Greenwich House, and at the Dear Composer series at Scandinavia House for the Musicians Club of New York. In addition, she has presented several concerts and talks featuring the Bulgarian composer’s solo piano and chamber music in the United States and Bulgaria. In 2023-24, she established a residency and a commissioning program for living composers at the Off the Beaten Festival in Bulgaria with grants from the European program Music AIRE and the National Culture Fund, Bulgaria.
Lora Tchekoratova is a dedicated chamber musician. She frequently performs with her husband, violinist Georgy Valtchev. During the past season, they presented a series of concerts in Toronto, Maryland, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Washington D.C., and their native Bulgaria. In addition, they often work for the World Artists Experiences organization in D.C. and present lesser-known music from Bulgaria at Colleges and Universities. Lora appears regularly in various chamber music programs with members of the New World Symphony, where she was a fellow under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. She has made numerous recordings for Radio and Television in Bulgaria, Sweden, Finland, and the United States. Her CD recordings for Gega New, Albany Records, and Naxos have received worldwide critical acclaim.
Lora Tchekoratova began her piano studies at age four and gave her first recital five years later at the State Music School in Sofia, Bulgaria. At age eighteen, she continued her studies at The Juilliard School in New York City, where she received her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees as a student of Seymour Lipkin. Other teachers include Lydia Kuteva, Vessela Marinova, Prof. Jenny Zaharieva, and Oxana Yablonskaya. She serves on the faculty of Mannes Prep at the New School College of Performing Arts in New York. She also serves as the Artistic Director of Salon de Virtuosi, a renowned organization in New York, dedicated to the promotion and nourishment of exceptional young classical musicians.
Lora resides in New York with her husband and two children, Ivan and Mina, and her pug, Coco.